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Date:Thursday, December 11, 2014

Time:Membership Social at 7:30Program at 8:00 p.m.

Location: Coastal Georgia Center, 305 Fahm St. (behind the Visitor's Center) Directions and MapAccess: Open to the public and free for members, students and accompanying family members, educators and active military and their dependents. $10.00 charge for non-members.

Dr. Stephen Blank

Dr. Stephen Blank will explore the context under which Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. This means examining the conceptual and political and military background to the invasion, Putin's domestic and foreign objectives, and the geopolitical consequences for Ukraine, Russia, Europe, and the rest of the world. The Russian invasion is the most naked act of aggression since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. It threatens many aspects of European and international security and to grasp the nature of that threat we must fully clarify its context, its domestic and foreign policy goals, the nature of the military operation involved and the consequences of this action and of the West's weak response. The lecture will aim to clarify all of these issues and is derived from Dr. Blank's ongoing research on these subjects.

STEPHEN BLANK is a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, www.afpc.org. From 1989-2013 he was a Professor of Russian National Security Studies at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania. Dr. Blank has been Professor of National Security Affairs at the Strategic Studies Institute since 1989. In 1998-2001 he was Douglas MacArthur Professor of Research at the War College.

He has published over 900 articles and monographs on Soviet/Russian, U.S., Asian, and European military and foreign policies, testified frequently before Congress on Russia, China, and Central Asia, consulted for the CIA, major think tanks and foundations, chaired major international conferences in the USA and abroad In Florence, Prague, and London, and has been a commentator on foreign affairs in the media in the United States and abroad. He has also advised major corporations on investing in Russia and is a consultant for the Gerson Lehrmann Group

He has published or edited 15 books focusing on Russian foreign, energy, and military policies and on International Security in Eurasia. His most recent book is Russo-Chinese Energy Relations: Politics in Command, London: Global Markets Briefing, 2006. He has also published Natural Allies?: Regional Security in Asia and Prospects for Indo-American Strategic Cooperation, Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, 2005. He isalso currently writing a book “Light From the East: Russia’s Quest for Great Powr Stauts in Asia” to be published in 2014 by Ashgate Publishrs

Dr. Blank is also the author of a study of the Soviet Commissariat of Nationalities, The Sorcerer as Apprentice: Stalin's Commissariat of Nationalities, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994 and the co-editor of The Soviet Military and the Future, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1992.

Prior to this appointment Dr. Blank was Associate Professor for Soviet Studies at the Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research, and Education of Air University at Maxwell AFB. He also held the position of 1980-86: Assistant Professor of Russian History, University of Texas, San Antonio, 1980-86, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian history,

University of California, Riverside, 1979-80.

Dr. Blank's M.A. and Ph.D. are in Russian History from the University of Chicago. His B.A is in History from the University of Pennsylvania.